July 2026

The Superflex

A Publication of the Alabama Historical Radio Society July 2026

NOTE FROM PRESIDENT WAG

Members,

Mark your calendars!

The date for next AHRS Business meeting is 7:00 PM on Monday, Aug 24th, 2026, in person and via Zoom at the link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86330579924?pwd=ckZLWEJMb0V2ajhBUzh0S2liQnlmZz09
Meeting ID: 863 3057 9924 Passcode: 631140

Due to a conflict, Boyd was unable to host the Zoom of the meeting in July; we are awaiting the paperwork processing needed to get our non-profit version for the Society. Once this occurs, we can host these from the shop.

NOTE: The Executive CMTE meeting (by invitation only) will be at 6:00 PM that evening.

Boyd Bailey’s next class is scheduled for Saturday 8 August 2026, 9:00 AM in person and via Zoom. The following link remains in effect:
https://us02web..us/j/88180351990?pwd=N2lucjB3WVhtR05nTSs5S0xGcURadz09

Topics and details (and homework) will be sent by Boyd prior to the class.

Boyd has edited and archived his classes to date; to access them, please contact him directly boyd.bailey@charter.net with your email address and he’ll guide you through the process.

Remember, there are many radios and pieces of related equipment downstairs in storage on the lower floor at the shop; we encourage members to visit. If you find something of interest you would like to acquire, talk to an officer or Board member about its availability. For a donation to the Society, you may well get your wish!

On behalf of the Finance CMTE, I can report Society finances are stable and our Treasurer Michael Spanos is becoming familiarized with our accounting software, QuickBooks Online. We will soon be filing our annual return with the IRS.

We have the MESH repeater mounted and active on our antenna at the request of Birmingham Mesh. If you have interest in this, contact one of our knowledgeable members (Rick Curl, Robert Cain, or Steven Westbrook) or Mark Snow (K4ZYP), who made the request several months ago.

Mark your calendars! Huntsville Hamfest https://hamfest.org/202x-event-flyer will be held August 22^nd & 23^rd, 2026; AHRS will be there, but only on Saturday the 22^nd. We will need volunteers to help bring our items there, man the tables, then break down and reload for the return to Birmingham. Please volunteerwhether it’s at the shop in Birmingham, at Huntsville, or both! We have already evaluated items of potential interest to bring to Huntsville, so thanks in advance to the members who helped in this regard.

This is the same day as the Scouts Advance-o-Rama – an event we have hosted at the shop for several years to help Scouts earn their Radio Merit Badge. We (Dee Haynes and Barron Smith) plan to mentor the boys! There will be a ham radio related event in November; details will follow as we get closer.

The Society received a donation of an antique radio speaker cabinet from the estate of member Mike Woodruff. The unit was in rough shape and the manufacturer was unknown. Member Gene Sample worked a miracle and repaired and refinished the unit. The unit was paired with a Radiola 18, owner by founding member Bill Shepherd and is now in the museum at Alabama Power Company.

Member Gene Samples with Radiola 18 and Cabinet in the Museum

We have traditionally hosted a booth at the Alabama Broadcasters Association (ABA) annual convention here in Birmingham. For their 80^th anniversary, ABA is touring the state:

I personally had a busy July including a trip with middle son to Glacier NP and Canada’s Waterton. These parks straddle the border and are together the world’s oldest international Peace Park. A week later, I joined my eldest son, DIL, and two grandsons in England. There were no heritage radios out west, but a number were sighted in the UK.

Firstly, I guess Stonehenge was wireless. When my wife and I first saw it about 30 years ago, we could wander amongst the stones, but no more; crowds (and there were plenty as evident in the background) are kept well away from the main structures.

Most of the antiques we saw were either at the Imperial War Museum or in the War Cabinet Rooms/Churchill Museum in London. Near the latter, I saw what looked like wire antennas atop the Old Admiralty Buildings adjacent to the Horse Guards Parade ground:

**Street view that caught my eye:** Wire antennae are barely seen running from atop the strut on the green roof toward the base of the flagpole (arrow). For perpective and quoted in the original Brit English:

4 Jan 2014: Antenna system on Admiralty building, Whitehall

“‌‌Anyone know anything about the antenna system installed on the Admiralty Buildings just off Horseguards Parade in London?”

4 Jan 2014: In this nice hi-res picture (below) it's clearly a wideband "V" dipole fed with ladder line

5 Jan 2014: Remember that the MOD (Ministry of Defense) [may] take a very long time to retire any technology completely. They have a belt and braces approach to command and control. systems and I would not be surprised if this aerial system was still being maintained, even if it isn't in active use.

From the English Heritage website, the building is Grade #1 listed, and was listed in 1970.
This could make it difficult or impossible to remove the aerials even if they were redundant.

7 Jan 2014: It looks like a cage dipole, 600R ladder line fed, arranged as a horizontal V, probably to give it a bit of directionality to some location or other, more than likely simply one of the main naval bases on the coast. I would hazard a guess of it being for around 2 MHz, but would need better dimensions

Cage dipoles were very popular in the early MF days, so that might tie in well with the 1933 date mentioned earlier, but very quicky [sic]and early on all branches of the WD/MoD learnt (RW: that’s Brit for learned) that specialist comms centres linked by landline were much more effective than having an antenna on the office roof!

Be no use tonight anyway, the low bands are dead...

If anyone does more research on this, we can include it in a future edition. The Brits can be very strict with what can be altered in their historical buildings…

From the Imperial War Museum, a postcard showing young recruits from Africa training in code from the WWII era.

Radio in the Churchill Museum used to listen to the BBC during WWII, especially during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

Late Breaking News!! We had just learned that our website was not functioning. Robert Cain and Steven Westbrook reached out to our hosting service DigitalOcean and after consultation, were able to remedy the issue on Saturday, 8/1/26. (Fixed the droplet.) Let us know if anyone encounters any difficulties.

Always looking for volunteers to provide a program for our monthly general business meetings.

Respectfully submitted & best,

President Wag, AHRS

Spies in the Airwaves

Many of our members may not realize we had a spy catcher amongst us. Member Claude Gray worked for the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) in Louisiana during World War Two. His job was to scan the airwaves for suspicious radio transmissions initiated from within US borders. He reported his finding to the proper authority for follow-up by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation.)

Spy Radio Transmissions in the U.S. During World War II

During World War II, the United States used a variety of clandestine radio systems and operations to gather intelligence, coordinate resistance, and counter enemy espionage — both inside and outside the U.S.

Clandestine Agent Radio Systems
The U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) developed specialized “spy radio” sets for agents operating behind enemy lines. One notable example was the Joan-Eleanor system, a very high frequency (VHF) radio pair designed to be undetectable to enemy intercepts. It consisted of a handheld transmitter (“Joan”) for the agent and a receiver (“Eleanor”) carried by an aircraft overhead. The agent spoke in plain speech, and the aircraft recorded the transmission, avoiding the need for encryption and reducing training time Wikipedia.

Another widely used set was the SSTR-1 (also called TR1), a modular valve-based transmitter/receiver developed in 1942. It was used by OSS agents in Europe, the China-Burma-India theater, and by resistance groups. The SSTR-1 could be powered from AC or DC sources and was often carried in a travel case or suitcase Crypto Museum.

Covert Monitoring and Interception
Inside the U.S., agencies like the FBI operated radio monitoring stations to intercept enemy transmissions. The FBI’s first major station, launched in October 1942 at a farm near Clinton, Maryland, was dedicated to intercepting Nazi radio traffic. Operators listened for Morse code messages and embedded intelligence, then sent them to the FBI Lab for analysis. These stations also sent back messages to agents, sometimes to mislead enemy spies archives.fbi.gov.

Ultra Intelligence and “Operation Ostrich”
The FBI also worked with British intelligence on Ultra — the code name for decrypted German and Japanese radio and cable traffic. This intelligence, known as Operation Ostrich in the U.S., provided critical information on German espionage networks, including those in South America. It helped identify and disrupt Nazi spy rings, such as the case of Johannes Becker in Argentina FBI.

Operational Patterns
Clandestine radio operators often used simple, regular signal plans with a limited set of frequencies to protect against detection. However, lax security practices sometimes led to predictable patterns that could be exploited by enemy intercepts CIA.

In summary, U.S. spy radio transmissions during WWII combined low-detection clandestine sets for field agents, covert monitoring stations for domestic interception, and Ultra intelligence for strategic disruption of enemy networks. These efforts were vital to both direct espionage and broader Allied intelligence operations.

-Copilot Search

Quote of the Month

Quotes from the “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (Film 1951)

I am impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.

I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason.

I am leaving soon, so you can forgive me if I speak bluntly.

Remember our Lending library in the basement is a wonderful asset available to all members.

Occasionally we receive radios and radio related items from donations that are stored in our basement, but do not make it into an auction. If you are interested in any of these items please discuss them with Tom Killian or Ray Giles.

We meet every Saturday (unless a Holiday weekend) at 8:30 A.M. until around 11:30 A.M., at the one-story AHRS Shop at the corner of 8th Avenue North and 18th Street, (1801 8th Avenue North, Birmingham, AL 35203). Please use the rear (Southeast) entrance.

The Shop is open on Tuesdays at 8:30 A.M. until around 11:30 A.M. Note that parking can be a problem on Tuesdays, so you may have to find street parking occasionally.

Regular monthly members meetings are on the fourth Monday night starting at 7:00 PM with the Executive Meeting starting at 6:30 PM

Please come join us!

The electronics classes are generally on “Zoom” and “in-person” at the AHRS Shop, typically the first Saturday of each month (except when something special is taking place, then we agree on an alternative Saturday)

Check your emails for the schedule and how to participate.

We start from the beginning Ohms Law, inductors, resistor and Capacitors color codes, as well as what each component does within the radio circuits. We also teach how to use test equipment used in the repairing of radios. We teach troubleshooting radio troubles, as well as how to read a radio diagram.

Currently the class is studying advance topics relating to troubleshooting and project radio repair. We are retooling our website in hopes of archiving prior classes for those who may have missed a prior class. Email will provide timely details on date, topics & links.

There are coil winding classes, and one-on-one repair help. Come join these classes!

Membership dues are $25.00 a year, payable beginning in January. If you have questions about your dues, you can contact Treasurer Mike Woodruff at 205-823-7204. Dues can be mailed to AHRS at P.O. Box 131418, Birmingham, Alabama 35213 or paid on-line at https://alhrs.org

Be sure and check out our website at https://alhrs.org, which has copies of all newsletters from 2006 to the present (click on News), videos, photo galleries, museum, Old Time Radio columns, Projects, Reading Rooms, Archives, and Contact Information. Within the next few months we hope to update our website and add additional content and new capabilities.